Legitimate Google Reviews Disappearing? What Are You Seeing in 2026
I’m curious whether anyone else has been hit by what feels like a quiet review purge this year.
Since late Q1 and into spring 2026, our team has seen a surprising number of legitimate Google reviews vanish or sit in limbo. We’re not talking about obviously spammy feedback – these are normal customer reviews that were visible one day and gone the next. In more than one case, clients reported customers leaving new reviews only for them to never appear at all.
Industry analysts say this isn’t isolated: review deletions have accelerated since late 2025. Some restaurants have lost dozens of five‑star reviews accumulated over years, and there are reports of businesses losing around a hundred reviews overnight. Another business owner shared that three five‑star reviews disappeared, leaving only a couple of lower‑star ratings and tanking their overall score. That’s a rough hit for any local brand when review count and recency play a big role in local pack rankings.
What’s causing it? Google quietly updated its review policies to target “unusual patterns” and crack down on incentivized or selectively solicited reviews. There are also hints of a bug in Google’s backend review sync that’s delaying or dropping legitimate reviews. On top of that, automated filters are flagging more content than before. We’ve noticed that five‑star reviews seem to be disproportionately removed in some industries, while other sectors see reviews disappear months or years after they were posted.
A few questions for the community:
- Have you seen a drop in review counts or delays in new reviews appearing this year?
- Do you see a pattern in which reviews disappear (by rating, age, or industry)?
- Have you successfully appealed a removal? What documentation or approach worked?
- How are you adjusting your review solicitation to avoid triggering Google’s filters now that incentives and “review gating” are explicitly against the rules?
Would love to hear how others are navigating this. Sharing stories and strategies could save someone a lot of stress.